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"Mobile-first" Bootstrap 3 is almost ready

Mobile use cases are the major focus for the next version of the open source web frontend framework Bootstrap. Under the heading of "Bootstrap 3 will be mobile-first", the developers have merged the responsive CSS templates into the core bootstrap.css file, dropping support for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3.6 in the process. The changes are aimed at making site designs implemented in Bootstrap adaptable to mobile resolutions by default, without the user having to explicitly enable additional functionality. Bootstrap, which originated at Twitter, has become popular with many developers and is used by hundreds of sites.

The developers are also moving the project's documentation to Jekyll, which isolates them from CSS and JavaScript changes in Bootstrap itself and makes it easier for the developers to modify the documentation. GitHub, which Bootstrap uses to host its source code repositories, itself supports Jekyll to serve pages. The Bootstrap developers have also redesigned a number of the framework's user interface elements, especially its buttons and forms, with the new mobile-centric default in mind.

Judging by the pull request on GitHub that the developers are using to track the progress of their development, Bootstrap 3 is close to be completed and the developers say they are "almost ready to do an official release candidate". Interested users who want to test the new "mobile-first" code can do so by downloading the work in progress code from GitHub. The most recent stable release of Bootstrap is version 2.3.2 from 17 May.